India being the second largest country of Facebook users is a big market for Zuckerberg to experiment or to launch his new products. Thus he came up with Facebook’s Free Basics app with a motive of connecting the people who are not connected because they could not afford the data plans offered by the telecom companies.
In case you do not know, the Facebook’s Free Basics app provided some internet services for the users of course including Facebook but did not take in everything on the internet world. CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg argued that Some Internet, especially for poor people who can’t afford data plans, is better than no Internet. And on the other hand Facebook says that its app does not defy net neutrality as any Internet service provider can sign up.”
If we hear to the advocates of net neutrality, they say that, by selecting the applications and services made available, zero-rated initiatives like Facebook’s Free Basics give private companies too much control over which parts of the Internet will people see and use, and which they don’t.
There are various people who have their expert comments on the issue. Here are some:
At a press conference regarding the same conducted in the capital Delhi, the TRAI Chairman Ram Sewak Sharma said, “Today we have come out with a regulation that essentially mandates no service provider shall charge differential pricing on basis of application, platforms, websites, or source. No ISP can enter into any arrangements based on discriminatory pricing. We have used the term discriminatory pricing instead of differential pricing because it in that paper had a particular context. What we are saying that packets on Internet, the pipes should not decide. Pipes should be agnostic to the packet.”
The TRAI secretary, Sudhir Gupta says, “Trai has today issued the ‘Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’ that disallow service providers to offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content being accessed by a consumer.” “While formulating the regulations, the authority has largely been guided by the principles of net neutrality seeking to ensure that consumers get unhindered and non-discriminatory access to the internet,” he added.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg took it to Facebook and wrote, “Connecting India is an important goal we won’t give up on, because more than a billion people in India don’t have access to the Internet. We know that connecting them can help lift people out of poverty, create millions of jobs, and spread education opportunities. We care about these people, and that’s why we’re so committed to connecting them”
On this the very noted and prominent tech blogger Anil Dash replied to his post saying, “At a broad level, it might be useful to really, really reckon with the history of western corporate powers enforcing their desires on a broad swath of the Indian population, especially India’s poorest. There are things that India, Indians (and those of us in the diaspora) place a very high value on, for historical reasons that should be obvious with some thought. A colonialist ‘Trust us, it’s for your own benefit’ pitch is a hard sell with good reason. Internet.org may be a fundamentally wrong structure for delivering these kinds of services because it doesn’t empower people to create solutions for themselves that are culturally and contextually appropriate. What about pausing the Internet Basics effort and spending some time on a real effort to listen to Indian voices about what would help them have connectivity on their own terms, in a way they find acceptable?”
Everyone in the world should have access to the internet. That’s why we launched Internet.org with so many different…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, February 8, 2016
Anyway, Zuckerberg seems to be very disappointed after the TRAI’s decision but says that he won’t give up on India.
That’s the spirit Zuckerberg!
